


Lord Bane´s Murder Mysteries - The art of murder

by Katy_777



Series: Lord Bane´s Murder Mysteries [3]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: 1920s, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Fusion, Alternate Universe - Police, M/M, Private Investigators
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-07-01 01:32:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 10,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15763875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katy_777/pseuds/Katy_777
Summary: With the end of World War I, a new era was born. An era full of glitz and glamour. Life was a seemingly never-ending party. Magnus Bane is a distant relative of the royal family. He has a title, wealth, a penchant for extravagance and he never gets tired of getting himself into trouble. He´d travelled the whole world in order to see and learn new things, only interested in parties, excesses and adventures behind your wildest imagination. At least that´s what most people think. But in reality, Magnus tries to escape his past and the unsolved mysteries surrounding the tragic events of his childhood. As Magnus decides to return home to New York after years of travelling, he doesn´t only find a new adventure in solving mysterious murders as a private investigator, but he also finds new friends and partners in Detective Inspector Alec Lightwood and his police constable Simon Lewis. The more time he spends in New York, the more he finds himself a new home, and with his new home, he forgets about the past that haunted him for so long. But that doesn´t mean that his past has forgotten him as well. Will Magnus be able to solve the greatest murder case of his life, or will he just end as a murder victim himself?





	1. Chapter 1

She meant it. She wanted them to murder Tessa´s murderer. “These are my terms, my dear nephew. They are non-negotiable. What do you say?”  
Magnus took the glass of Whisky from the sideboard, lifting it towards his aunt. “I say let´s clink our glasses. To our new `partnership´.” And the moment he said it the words left a bitter taste in his mouth.  
The predatory smile reappeared on his aunts face as she raised her glass as well, letting it clink with his own.   
Magnus couldn´t help but thinking: `So that´s how it feels, if you sell your soul to the devil´.

Magnus stood in front of a colorful painting that showed two dancing women in airy dresses. He couldn´t help but think that the style of the painting somehow reminded him of the stained-glass windows of the old english churches. He couldn´t tell how long he´d already stood there, nipping on his glass of wine while giving his best to seem interested. He´d tried. He´d tried very hard. And he actually also wanted to be interested in these paintings, but in his mind he was still busy with the fact that his devious aunt was on her way to find the decisive hints to finally reveal Tessa´s murderer. And if they do so, then he had to fulfill his part as well.   
Magnus wanted to find Tessa´s murderer, he wanted it so badly. But he didn´t wanted to lie to Raphael, or Ragnor, or Cat. And he especially didn´t wanted to lie to Alexander. Since their little conversation on the staircase in front of his house two weeks ago, they seemed to be closer.  
But they could never be close. Magnus knew that. Because Alec was a law-abiding detective inspector, and he was a prospective murderer. It actually sounded more like a modern Shakespeare tragedy than something that had real future prospects.  
“And, what do you think?”, an excited voice cut him out of his depressing thoughts.  
He looked to his side to the girl with the red curls and the shining green eyes that matched the color of her evening dress. As their eyes met, she gave him a lopsided grin.  
“I think that you´re even better than good old Michelangelo, biscuit.”  
“Flatterer.”, she laughed.  
“No, I´m serious.”, Magnus insisted, “You´re a great artist, darling.”  
“Magnus”, she strangely had to sigh and laugh as well, “You´re in an art gallery surrounded by art, and you´re staring at this one painting for half an hour now. So you´re either TOTALLY in love with it or you´re with your thoughts somewhere else. Or shall I better say with someone else?” she grinned wickedly.  
Had it really already been half an hour?!  
“I don´t know what you´re talking about, biscuit”, Magnus responded sheepishly.  
“Denial is useless. Ragnor has already told me about you and this police man. And I have to admit that I´m a little bit offended. How is it possibly that THE Magnus Bane actually starts to fall in love, and I´m the last one who gets to know about that?!”, she pouted.  
So Ragnor was gossiping about his love life… great…  
“It´s nothing like that. We´re just friends.”, he said, noticing how the words hurt in his chest.   
“But do you want to be `just friends´?”, Clary raised one of her eyebrows.  
“How about a deal: If you stop questioning my decisions considering my love life, then I´ll buy that painting which had seemingly already costed me thirty minutes of my lifetime.”, Magnus offered.  
Clary looked at him for a moment consideringly, before she waved of. “Nah, this is more fun. So, how´s his name?”  
Magnus sighed in surrender, knowing very well that he would have no chance against her. “It´s Alec. But I call him Alexander.”  
“Alexander”, Clary wiggled her eyebrows, making Magnus rolling his eyes, even though he couldn´t fight the grin that curled up his lips.  
“Can you also say his name without your brows dancing tango on your forehead?”, he grinned. Clary gave him a surprised look, eyes wide before she burst out into loud laughter, making the other guests look at them questioningly.  
“You´re so dumb”, she pouted.  
“Says the right one.”, Magnus joined in her laughter, as suddenly, a bloodcurdling scream echoed through the room, loud and high and full of horror, making everyone and everything goes quiet.   
Magnus and Clary exchanged a look, before running towards the direction from which the scream had seemed to come. Others followed their example, heading towards the other room curiously.  
There was a huge marble statue of an archangel, wings spread wide through the room and armed with sword and armor. To its feet laid the corps of a man. He must have been one of the guests because he wore an expensive looking Tuxedo. Next to the man stood a woman, face as pale as the marble and shaking, eyes wide and voice trembling.  
“H- he´s dead.”


	2. Chapter 2

Magnus couldn´t tell what´d happened first, or when or where. All he could tell was that chaos had broken out among them. People were panicking, seemingly running through the room without any direction or any attention at all, others were wildly discussing, voices raised, nearly shouting, and others just stood still in shock.  
“New Yorks high society”, Magnus sighed. “They think they were something special but when it comes to something like that then they react not different then any other human being would. Well, that is not quite correct: they react even worse. They are all totally useless right now.”  
Clary looked at him, seemingly also a little bit harassed. Magnus felt the urge to take her in his arms and hug her tight when a loud threatening voice cut through the noises of the chaos, getting everyone´s attention.   
“DIOS! BE QUIET!”  
Raphael stood next to the dead body, a murderous glare in his eyes that, if Magnus wouldn´t already know him so long, would chill him to the bones. But looking around he had to notice that Raphael´s glare seemingly had exactly this effect on the other guests. They all looked like sheep facing a big bad wolf: quiet and too afraid to only move one inch. Magnus was pretty sure that some of them even held their breaths.  
“We all need to calm down now. You are all going into the other room and you”, he pointed at the manager of the gallery, “are now going to call for the police. Ask for detective inspector Alec Lightwood. Questions? Or even objections?”, Raphael shot another threatening glare in the round that made clear that he wouldn´t like to hear objections, so everyone left to go back into the other room with the colorful paintings. The only ones left by now were Magnus, Clary, Raphael, Ragnor and Catarina, who went to her knees next to the corps, expecting its closely.  
“What do you think, Cat?”, Magnus asked, stepping to his friend.  
The man wore indeed an expensive tuxedo. He seemed to come out of a southern area, maybe from spain like Raphael. His hair was black as the night, his eyes widened in shock and there was a little bit foam at the corners of his mouth. Together with the spasmed position of his dead body it was clear what killed him…  
“He was poisoned.”, Cat said what he´d thought, confirming his guess.  
Magnus´ eyes wandered to the shards of the broken Wine-glass next to them on the ground. Rests of the wine covered the marble tiles.  
“Do you think he drank it?”, he asked, not taking his eyes from the red liquid.  
“You think the wine was poisoned?”, Catarina looked at him in shock, the others (except Raphael who was still staring down at the face of the man) followed her example, seemingly all thinking the same, “Wouldn´t that mean that we´re all poisoned as well?”  
“No”, Magnus shook his head, “If that would be the case, then we would already have much more deaths to mourn. I was more thinking that maybe someone has put the poison in his drink, you know?”  
Catarina hummed thoughtful. “Possible. If the poison was color-, taste- and odorless, then sure, why not.”  
“But that would mean”, Clary´s eyes widened with a mix of shock and realization starting to spread over her features, “That the murderer is possibly still among us.”  
“What do you say, Magnus?”, Ragnor looked at him, calm and totally put together, “What are we going to do know?”  
“I would say we play a little round of murder-guessing.”, Magnus grinned mischievously. “We need to find out who the victim was, who has been with him over the course of the evening and especially which reason one could have had to murder him.”  
“I fear that´s easier said than done my old friend.”, Ragnor sighed.  
“We´ve managed to fulfill tasks that had been much worse than this, Ragnor.”, Catarina stood up, seemingly highly motivated, “remember the night when Magnus was so drunk that he wanted to live on as a cactus? We´d been the ones who´d had to babysit him the whole night as if he would have been a giant drunk rich baby. If we´ve managed to do this, then finding our murderer will be nothing.”  
“But we failed to babysit him, Cat! We let him break into the major´s house. He even stole his Persian carpet!”, Ragnor insisted.  
“I may not remember that night but I remember very well that we´ve sworn an oath to NEVER talk about that night ever again. So why are we always talking about it?!”, Magnus asked.  
“Because it´s hard not to talk about it. The events of that night were simply way too traumatizing to just forget about them.”, Ragnor declared. Magnus was just going to give his friend a sassy comeback as someone fell him into the word.  
“Why are you guys discussing Magnus´s numerous drinking binges while we´re standing right next to a dead man, in a gallery filled with shocked people and a not so small chance that there´s a murderer among them?”, Clary let her glare wander over the three of them. Magnus felt like a school kid that just got reprimanded for a foolery by his strict teacher.  
“You´re right, biscuit”, Magnus admitted, “I´m sorry. I´m pretty sure we all are.”. He looked over to the others, his gaze stopping on Raphael.  
He first noticed now that Raphael hadn´t said any further word after his little commanding speech. He´d just stood there, wordlessly, eyes pinned to the corps on the ground and a strange expression covering his face, his lips tightened to a thin line.  
“Hey Raph, are you okay?”, Magnus asked careful, slightly worried. He couldn´t remember the last time he´d seen his friend looking like this. Shocked or angry or with a murderous glare? Sure, why not? But this? This was new. And Magnus could already tell that he didn´t like what he saw.  
Raphael didn´t took his eyes from the man´s dead face, posture stiffened and voice low as he said: “I know him. I know that man.”


	3. Chapter 3

“What do you mean you know him?”, Ragnor gave Raphael a questioning look.  
Raphael on the other hand still seemed to be harassed.  
“His name´s Pablo. Pablo Rodriguez.”  
“And?”, Ragnor demanded but Raphael just stared to the ground.  
“Do you know him from spain?”, Magnus asked, mustering Raphael´s features, searching for an answer.  
“No. Well yes, but no, that´s not it. I´ve worked with him once.”  
Oh.  
OH.  
That explained a lot.  
And caused so much more unanswered questions.  
“So this man´s a-“  
“A thief.”, Raphael confirmed, finally taking his eyes from the dead and looking at Magnus. There was a grief filling his eyes that made Magnus´ heart ache. He couldn´t stand seeing his best friend looking like this.  
“So what? This Pablo-guy was here to rob the gallery but someone murdered him first?”, Clary furrowed her brows.  
Magnus had to admit that this was a good question but right now there was something else bothering him more.  
“We have a problem.”, he declared.  
Ragnor raised his brows, “You mean besides all the already existing problems that are surrounding us right now?”  
“Raphael knows the victim. He knows him because they have once been partners during his time as a criminal. And Raphael was here, tonight, during the murder.”, Magnus declared.  
Everyone looked down in shock as they realized what that meant.  
“He´ll be their main suspect.”, Catarina said, her voice barely audible.  
During the course of a second, Magnus made a decision.   
“No one can know about the connection between Raphael and the victim.”  
“Not even the detective inspector?”  
“Especially not Alexander.”  
“But I thought he´s our friend.”  
“He is. But he is also a law enforcer. He may not suspect Raphael of the murder but as one he couldn´t simply ignore the fact that Raphael is wanted by the police units of several states in oversea because he´s a famous art thief.”  
“You´re probably right.”, Ragnor concluded. “So we´re keeping this for us. But you´re little police man is not stupid. He´ll maybe figure it out on his own. And if he´s doing so, then we´ll stand in an even worse light.”  
“That is why we need to be fast. The faster we´ll solve this case, the smaller the chances that Alexander comes behind Raphael´s secret.”  
“Or I just tell him the truth and when he decides that he has to do his job than I´ll turn myself in.”, Raphael offered.  
“NO!”, they all replied in common, nearly synchronous.  
“That is not an option, Raph”, Magnus said with a firm voice, determination coloring his eyes.  
It truly was none. Raphael didn´t belong into prison, and he wouldn´t let him go into prison because of crimes he´d once done out of plight. He wouldn´t let Alexander imprison his best friend, because if he would do that, then there would be another thing standing between them. And Magnus was selfish enough not to let this cut become even deeper than it already was. He was selfish enough to do everything to make sure he won´t lose his best friend.  
Besides, they all had a dark past. That´s what brought them together in the first place, that´s what made them family. More than that, actually. Because they were even closer than any family could ever be. And no one of them would let the other down. Never ever.  
He wouldn´t lose Raphael, not because of his dark past. And especially not when he was the one who had to face an even darker future. It simply wasn´t fair.  
“Ok”, Magnus raised his voice, getting everyone´s attention, “We don´t have much time until the police will arrive, so we have to be quick. First of all, I need a drink.”  
“MAGNUS!”, Catarina shot him a warning glare.  
“Ok ok”, Magnus raised his hands in surrender, “no drinks. But I need to know as much as possible. Biscuit-“, he turned to the little redhead, “You´re one of the artists. The people here know you. And they like you. I want you to go into the other room and talk with the guests. Try to be unsuspicious, let it seem like a normal conversation, maybe do a little bit gossip. But try do gather as much information as possible about the dead´s activities during the course of the evening. Ragnor-“, he looked at his British friend who raised a brow questioningly, “You inspect the gallery. Find out if there is anything out of place. Everything that seems strange in your eyes, no matter how unimportant it appears to be, will be noticed. And Cat, I need your medical knowledge. Inspect the corps, search for symptoms and then make a list with possible poisons and their durations so that we can narrow down the period of time regarding the act of poisoning. And you-” he gave Raphael a serious look, “are now going to tell me EVERYTHING about the victim and your time together.”  
“Sounds like a plan to me.”, Ragnor commented before heading out, followed by Clary who went to a group of guests that stood near the painting of the dancing women that Magnus knew from before. Cat returned to the corps, kneeling beside it once more and Magnus went closer to Raphael, putting a hand on his shoulder reassuringly, hoping that he could give Raphael some of his strength, that he could show him that they´ll be there for him, no matter what happens.  
“Shall we start?”, he asked softly.  
“Sure”, Raphael sighed, “but there is something that you need to know first.”

 

They´d had less time for their researches then Magnus had hoped for, because only ten minutes after their little crisis talk Magnus could hear the sound of the police sirens approaching. They all had to return to the other guests, trying to act as unsuspicious as possible and then head home to his mansion to compare what they´d found out. Magnus could only hope that the others had been able to gather some useful information.  
As the front doors flew open and Alexander and Simon went in together with two other uniformed police men, Magnus stepped to Clary´s side, whispering in her ear:  
“I need you to do me a little favor.”


	4. Chapter 4

As Alec entered the art gallery, he let his view wander through the room. The gallery was bright, with high ceilings, round columns and Ivy plants. The whole interior of the building looked like a Greek temple. A contrast to the white classic design were the colorful paintings that hang all over the walls.  
He and his constable Simon Lewis were surrounded by a cloud of people in noble evening wear, all talking wildly, their voices mixing into a loud noise.  
Alec closed his eyes, taking in a deep annoyed breath, actually regretting that he was wearing his gun right now. The thought of shooting in the ceiling to silence them was too tempting.  
As he opened his eyes he saw a familiar face coming towards him, giving him a wide grin.  
“Why am I not surprised by that?”, Alec laughed, suddenly feeling way better, “It´s like you would attract murders.”  
“I don´t attract murders, my dear detective. But I can´t deny that I am an attractive person”, he winked, making Alec blush.  
He looked to the side, hoping that Magnus wouldn´t notice his reddened cheeks as he noticed that his constable wasn´t able to look Magnus in the eyes as well. He actually seemed to be even more flustered then he was, feeling obviously uncomfortable in Magnus´ near.  
“I´m going to take a first look at the victim.”, Simon blurted out, rushing away.  
Well, that was odd.  
“Have you done anything with my constable?”, Alec frowned.  
But Magnus just chuckled, “I´ve accidentally caught him and Raphael making out last week. You can say that they´ve only been partly dressed at that point and since then our dear Simon can´t look into my eyes anymore because he´s too embarrassed.”  
“You´ve caught them while they were making out?”, Alec raised one eyebrow.  
“What shall I say, detective. These kinds of things happen, but apparently they haven´t happened to Simon before so I fear he´ll need some time until he acts normal around me again.”, Magnus waved the topic off.  
Alec decided not to go into that topic any further.  
“What happened?”, he asked, giving Magnus a curious look, “And why is it that you are here?”  
“This is an art exhibition, Alexander. And I´ve been here becau-“  
“Magnus”, a female voice interrupted their conversation. Alec looked around to see a young woman who was maybe one or two years younger then his own sister stepping to Magnus side. “Magnus I fear I don´t feel so well”, the girl said with a weak voice, “all this excitement and the sight of the dead I feel so-“, and with this her legs gave away and she fell but got happily caught by Magnus who lifted her up, her flabby petite body motionless in his arms.  
“Oh no, I fear she passed out.”, Magnus said, hoping that the concern in his voice sounded convincing enough for the detective to believe them.  
“You want me to call for an ambulance?”  
“I think that´s not neecessary.”, Magnus answered fastly, “I´ll just bring her to my place and there she can rest. If it´s okay for you detective if I and the others will answer your questions to another time?”  
“Yeah… sure… no problem.”, Alec said, confused.  
Something was wrong here.  
Magnus didn´t want to help him solving a case. But instead he wants to go home to rest? Actually REST?!  
Something was definitely wrong here.  
Maybe that wasn´t Magnus, but something like a decent doppelganger of him…  
“Well, thank you detective.”, Magnus smiled. Before lifting up the girl bridal style, carrying her to the front doors. Alec watched as they left into the dark of the night, wondering who that girl was that she was more important to Magnus than solving a case with him. And he couldn´t help but feeling a little bit jealous.

As they arrived at the car, the others were already awaiting them.  
“We´re out of sight now, well acted, biscuit.”, he laughed, setting Clary down who was wide awake and fully conscious, grinning back at him.  
“Well, I´ve learned from the best.”, she winked at him.

As they entered Magnus´s newly renovated salon they saw Isabelle sitting on one of the armchairs, Chairman slept curled-together on her lap, purring peacefully as she fondled his head.  
She looked up at them, smiling, “How was your evening?”, she asked.  
“Good”, Magnus answered, “There was a murder, we had to lie to your brother because Raphael knew the victim, we fled from the crime scene and now we have to solve the case on our own before Alexander finds out about Raph´s past.”  
“So, it was a normal Friday evening?”, Isabelle commented, wondering herself that these kinds of things doesn´t surprise her anymore.  
“Like any other.”, Magnus grinned. He simply loved Isabelle, she suited so well in his household.  
“So, coming back to the fact that our dear Raphael is in big trouble right now.”, Ragnor interrupted them.  
“Right”, Magnus said, “So who´s first? Catarina?”  
“I´m pretty sure that it has been monkshood.”, Cat declared. “It works fast and the symptoms of a monkshood poisoning are consistent with the symptoms of our victim.”  
“So that confirms our theory that the murder has been on the party as well. Ragnor?”  
“Superficially I couldn´t find anything strange, except that one of the showcases had been empty. But I can´t tell you if someone stole its content or if it has simply been stored by the gallery because of a new exhibition.”  
“Do you remember what should have been in the showcase? Has there been a plaque or something?”  
Ragnor frowned, “I think it was something about a Burma ruby?”  
“The queen´s ruby?!”, Clary gasped.  
“You know it?”  
“The gallery has an exhibition about the jewels of famous royals. The queen´s ruby has once belonged to the French queen Marie Antoinette. It shouldn´t have been gone, the exhibition wasn´t over yet.”  
“So it got stolen.”, Magnus concluded.  
“Isn´t Marie Antoinette the queen whose head got chopped off?”, Izzy asked, causing Ragnor to make an indignant loud.  
“She is so much more than just the queen whose head got chopped off. Her story actually started in-“  
“RAGNOR!”, at least three different people shouted.  
“What?”  
“This is not the time for one of your brilliant historical lectures.”  
“I know, I know. Raphael knew the victim and that´s bad.”  
“Actually”, Magnus took in a deep breath, “there´s much more to that.”  
“What do you mean?”, Ragnor frowned.  
Magnus looked over to Raphael, the two exchanging a long look before Magnus sighed, “Do you wanna tell them or shall I?”  
“Telling us what?”, Clary furrowed her brows.  
“The victim was not just my former criminal partner”, Raphael confessed.  
“But?”  
“Also my ex-boyfriend?”  
There was a moment of silence.  
“You´ve got to be kidding me?!”, Ragnor complained, “How is it possible that the situation just became even worse?!”  
“Come down, Ragnor”, Magnus tried to appease his friend. “The situation isn´t THAT bad. I´m actually pretty sure that it could be so much worse.”  
“And how shall this be possible?”  
The moment Ragnor raised the question they heard the door bell ringing. They were all quiet while Ragnor left to check who was visiting them at this nightly hour.  
As he returned, he had a strange expression on his face, his lips tightened.  
“I can´t believe that you´ve been right, Magnus.”  
“About what?”, Magnus frowned.  
“About what you´ve said before.”, And with that Ragnor stepped to the side, showing them all their visitors.  
Detective inspector Alec Lightwood leaned in the doorframe to the salon, arms crossed in front of his chest and one eyebrow raised skeptically. Next to him stood a slightly nervous constable Lewis.  
Shit.  
“Well, hello my dear detective”, Magnus cheered, “We haven´t expected you to visit us that early. How can we help you?”  
Alec stepped in the salon, letting his eyes wander over the faces of the presents until they rested on Magnus.  
“You were all remarkably well behaved tonight”, he said it in his strict detective-inspector-voice. Not good. “What have you done?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was actually inspired by a writing prompt I´ve found onPinterest. Hope you enjoy it;)


	5. Chapter 5

Magnus was pretty sure that they must be a fascinating scenery to watch. Six people in one room, all staring wide eyed at the detective inspector, mouths opening and closing in their attempts to find the right words.  
Alec seemed to become more and more impatient with every second passing by, his eyes wandering over to Clary.  
“I see your `company´ of the evening is fully awake as well. And she looks so refreshed. That actually went fast.”  
Clary throw a panicked look over to Magnus who caught it and somehow managed to refind his composure.  
“My dear detective, I truly have no idea what you´re talking about.”  
“I´m talking about the fact that you´ve acted so unlike your usual self tonight. And that´s suspicious.”  
Raphael cleared his throat. “Detective, may I explain why-“  
“Why Clary felt so ill!”, Magnus fell Raphael in the word before he could do something stupid. “That´s a good idea Raph, but I think that I´ll handle things from here on. Alexander, would you mind if we talk outside? Alone.”, he threw a warning glare over to Raphael.  
“Sounds good to me.”, Alec said, his eyes still wandering through the room suspiciously before he turned on his heels and followed Magnus outside.  
As they heard the front door closing Ragnor couldn´t hold back anymore.  
“Raphael are you insane now?! I´ve thought we would have been clear about you not turning yourself in. We´re lying and covering for you so please, PLEASE, be so friendly and don´t do anything stupid. You´re not Magnus!”  
“Ragnor?”, Catarina´s voice was careful.  
“What?”  
But instead of answering she just pointed at the place next to the doorframe. Ragnor had totally forgotten that constable Lewis has still been there, able to listen to everything he´d just said.  
There was an unpleasant silence filling the room, everyone staring on the ground uncomfortably while Simon mustered them all questioningly, eyebrow raised.  
Raphael sighed, turning to Simon, looking him straight in the eyes.  
“Simon, mi amor, can I talk to you?”, Raphael played nervously with the cross that hang around his neck.  
“Sure”, Simon said.  
They headed upstairs towards Raphael´s room, quiet. Simon couldn´t believe what he´d just heard. He´d actually thought that the detective inspector was just overreacting, he´d even tried to calm him down but it seemed that he´d been right about Magnus and the others hiding something. Raphael was hiding something.  
As the door to Raphael´s room fell shut behind them, taking away that light from the floor, they stood motionless in the middle of the room, surrounded by darkness. Their only source of light was the bright light of the full moon that was shining through the window, making it possible for Simon to see the grief and sadness in Raphael´s eyes.  
The golden cross around his neck reflected the moonlight, shining bright.  
Simon crossed his arms in front of his chest, raising one of his brows (admittedly a posture that he´d copied from detective inspector Lightwood). “So?”  
He could see that Raphael was nervous. This was so unlike him.  
“Why has Ragnor said that they would cover for you? And why should you turn yourself in?”  
“Simon, mi amor, it´s complicated.”  
Well done, Raphael thought, what an answer. This will surely convince him…  
“Have you murdered the victim?”  
“Do you actually believe that I could do something like that?” he asked, realizing how much he feared Simon´s answer.  
“No”, Simon mustered him, “but I believe that there´s something you´re not telling me.”  
“I knew him.”, Raphael confessed, noticing very well how Simon´s eyes widened, “I knew the victim because we´d once worked together.”  
“And that´s all?”, Simon laughed relieved. “Why haven´t you guys simply told us that?”  
Now or never. Simon is important to you! Tell him! Stop running away!  
“Because we were criminals. I was a criminal once, Simon. An art thief, to be accurate. And a rather good one.”  
So the truth was finally out. It felt…good… somehow, to be honest with the one you love.  
Simon wasn´t laughing anymore, all relief gone. He stared at Raphael, a seriousness in his eyes that scared him.  
“Mi amor-“  
“Why?”  
“Why what?”  
“Why have you been a criminal? Because of the fast money? The adrenaline?”  
“Because of my mother.”  
“Your mother?”  
“My father was a gambler. He had high liabilities at the wrong places because he´d lend money from mobsters. When he knew that he couldn´t pay for the liabilities anymore because the pay taxes had become unbearable he just vanished, leaving alone his wife with his five children and with the open liabilities he still owned that gangster. I was fifteen back then and the oldest of my siblings. The gang of that mobster threatened us every day. They threatened to burn our house down, they threatened to murder my mother… they”, Raphael swallowed hard, “they didn´t care that we were just kids. They didn´t care that my mother was just a harmless housewife. They wanted their money. And it was a lot of money that they wanted. But we were poor. I´ve slept with two of my brothers on one mattress next to the rickety old bed my sisters shared. My mother slept on the couch and most of the time we didn´t even had light.”  
Simon had no idea. He didn´t know about that aspect of Raphael´s past, he´d never told him. But he could tell that it burdened him.  
“I knew we had to give them the money, I knew that these gangsters weren´t just joking, that they were cruel enough to even hurt some defenseless kids. Pablo, the victim, was my best friend back then. He brought up the idea of stealing the money, and we did. It was more then enough to pay out the gang but we´ve been negligently back then and so the police had been able to find out our identities. We had to leave spain and flee to France, leaving behind our families. We were fifteen, hadn´t finished school, hadn´t learned a craft yet, but needed lots of money to hide. So we continued stealing, and we became better and better with every time. And we became also more.”  
Raphael made a short break, taking in a deep breath.  
“It didn´t last. We simply weren´t made for each other. We broke up a few months later. I was a mess back then, but it was also the time when I´ve met Magnus, and it was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. He´d always protected me, still does. He´s actually doing it right now while he´s lying to the detective inspector. I swear to you, mi amor, that I don´t have to do anything with the murder of Pablo. It was nothing more than a coincidence that we were both there tonight, admittedly a really really bad coincidence, but still nothing more than that. Magnus didn´t wanted to bring the detective or you in a bad place because you would have had to arrest me. You have to arrest me, Simon.”  
Simon looked at Raphael for a long time.  
“For what?”  
“How about art theft?”  
“All I see is a man who´d risked everything for those he loved. I can´t believe I´m actually saying that since I´ve sworn an oath and all that stuff but I won´t imprison you, Raphael.”  
“Simon, you have to-“  
“I don´t and I won´t, Raph. And I´m not going to discuss that with you.”  
“Why are you doing this, mi amor?”  
“You´ve risked everything for those you loved, now let me risk everything for the one I love.”  
Raphael stared at him in shock, “Do you mean that-“  
“I mean that I love you, yes.”, Simon grinned, slightly flustered.  
Raphael couldn´t believe how lucky he was. How could one person have so much luck in his life? First Magnus and the new home, the new family he´d given to him and now Simon, who gave his heart to him. He felt like he wouldn´t deserve it, and still he was seemingly lucky enough to have it. To have them.  
“I love you too”, Raphael managed to respond, even though his heart was beating so fast that Raphael feared it could jump out of his chest every second.  
“Really, you do?!”, Simon blurted out excited and totally happy, making Raphael laugh. There he was again: his cute police constable.  
“Yes, I do.”, Raphael stepped closer to Simon, putting his arms around his waist so that he could pull him even closer, minimizing the free space between them as much as possible. Simon was just a little bit taller than Raphael, and they seemingly fit together perfectly. Raphael lifted his head lightly and then they were kissing, deep and slow, every touch of their lips filled with the desire to lose themselves in each other, to forget about their current situation, about the problems they had to face when they would return downstairs again. They just wanted this moment. They needed this moment. With each other. When everything else is forgotten, and they´re not a cop and a thief, but simply two boys who were kissing in a dark room. Simon had to admit that Raphael definitely knew what he was doing as he parted Simon´s lips expertly, making him fear that his legs could give out every second while Simon let his hands run up and down Raphael´s upper arms until they somehow found their way upstairs, one hand resting in Raphael´s neck, helping him to intensify the kiss, while he used the other to cup one half of Raphael´s face, softly caressing his cheek with his thumb.  
Yes, he loved that man. And he would do everything in his power to protect him.


	6. Chapter 6

As Alec and Magnus stepped out on the staircase in front of his house Magnus noticed that it was a clear night. There was no crowd covering the sky and he could see the stars and the full moon shining down on them.  
Alec noticed how Magnus leaned against the railing, a little away from Alec, his arms crossed over his chest, rubbing his upper arms as if he felt cold. Or uncomfortable.  
“Magnus, what´s going on here?”, Alec looked at him questioningly, mustering the other man´s features, searching for a trace of what he tried to hide.  
He was used to Magnus doing stupid stuff behind his back, but normally he would do it while working with him. But this time he definitely wasn´t working with him, but he was still doing stuff behind his back.  
“As I said: Clary felt ill because the shock of seeing the dead one was too much for her so I´ve brought her here so she could rest. She´d rested and now she´s fine again.”  
“You don´t actually want me to believe that, do you?”, Alec raised his brows. “You would never ignore a murder case.”  
“Well, there´s a first time for everything.”, Magnus commented. Damn it, not even he himself believed that shit, so there was no way Alec would ever believe it.  
“Magnus.”, Alec gave him an intimidating look, making him feel as if he could see straight inside his soul, “I have no problem with you doing stupid shit or not telling me about all your sources of information, but this is different. I have no idea what´s going on but this is still an active murder case, you can´t just go and hide important information from me, Magnus. We need to trust each other.”  
`If you only knew´, Magnus thought. He felt a disturbing feeling spreading in his chest, heavy and distressing.  
He wanted to trust Alexander with this, but he knew he couldn´t. Alec may have looked away when he´d done some semi-illegal fooleries in the past when they helped them solving a case, but he knew that he couldn´t just look away when he found out that there were at least three open liability commands from countries in oversea. He had to protect Raphael.  
“If you truly want to trust me detective, then you should start by trusting me with this. Clary felt ill, I brought her to my home, that´s it. I would really love to help you solve this case but not tonight.”, Magnus gave Alec a serious look. He hated all these lies.  
“Magnus, you can´t be serious.”  
“I am. You either accept it and we talk tomorrow, or you decide not to trust me, but in this case I fear that I have to ask you to leave my estate, now, detective inspector Lightwood.”  
“As you wish, Lord Bane. Good night.”, Alec responded with a strict voice, lips tightened, and Magnus felt his heart ache. His throat felt dry and he wanted to stop him from leaving, he wanted to grab his arm and hug and kiss him and tell him everything. But he couldn´t. So instead he stood there in the middle of the night, leaned against the old railing of his staircase, watching wordlessly how the detective went to his car and drove away.  
Magnus stood there a while longer while the cold night breeze cooled his skin. He didn´t even noticed that he was freezing, too lost in his own thoughts as he stared after the black police car.  
But wait!  
Has Alexander just forgotten Constable Lewis?!  
Magnus frowned, heading inside to check on the others. 

As Magnus joined the others he had to notice that neither Raphael nor Constable Lewis were there. There were only Ragnor, Catarina, Izzy and Clary who all seemed to not know what to do with themselves.  
“The detective is gone now.”, Magnus sighed as he let himself fall in one of the armchairs.  
“Really?”, Izzy gave him a look full of disbelieve. “How have you managed to do that? I know my brother, he would never simply leave if he has a hint.”  
“Well, my dear, I have never said that it went well, just that he´s gone.”  
“Oh god, what happened?”, Cat sighed.  
“I threw him out.”  
“You did what?!.”  
“Yeah, I guess you can say that I screwed things up even more.”, Magnus sighed.  
“You know what”, Ragnor said, walking towards Magnus´ open bar, “I can´t believe I´m actually doing this but today I would like to quote the infamous Magnus Bane when I say that I´m way too sober for this.”  
“By the way”, Magnus looked in the round, “Where are our two lovebirds?”  
“We´re here.”, Raphael said as he and Simon entered the Salon.  
Magnus raised one brow, biting back a grin. The two had flushed cheeks and slightly swollen lips. It was not hard to tell what they´d done.  
“What have I missed?”, Magnus gave Raphael a questioning look, resisting the urge to wiggle his eyebrows.  
“I´ve told Simon everything.”, Raphael said, making everyone stare at him in shock.  
“And I´m going to help you.”, Simon added fastly as he saw the expression on their faces.  
“You do?”, Magnus frowned. “Why? I mean, I´m definitely not complaining, but why?”  
“Let´s just say that Raphael is more important to me than this stupid uniform.”, Simon grinned at Raph.  
Magnus didn´t know what to say. These seemed to be the first good news of this evening. And then he noticed the expression on Raphael´s face, the way he looked at Simon affectionate. It was rare to see his friend with these softened features and full of love. But it suited him, and suddenly, Magnus felt once more corroborated in his decision to cover for Raphael. He would protect him, so that he could be with Simon and look like this from now on on every single day.  
But the beautiful moment got interrupted as Ragnor laughed out loud, putting a glass full of Whiskey into Simon´s hand. “I have to admit that I´ve misjudged you, constable. Welcome to the family.”  
“Really?!”, Simon beamed, seemingly totally excited.  
“You´re sometimes too cute to be true, mi amor.”, Raphael laughed softly.  
Simon blushed, before clearing his throat. “To come back to the case. What do you have?”  
“Well, the victim´s name was Pablo Rodriguez. He was an art theft and probably there for a robbery because someone stole an expensive ruby collier out of one of the showcases. He got poisoned with monkshood and regarding the duration of that poison we can conclude that the murderer must have been on the party as well, probably one of the guests.”, Magnus informed Simon who stared at him wide-eyed.  
“When have you figured all that out?”, he asked stunned.  
“Well, we had ten minutes between the discovery of the murder and the arrival of you and the detective.”, Magnus shrugged, “By the way”, Magnus turned to Clary, “You´ve spoken with the guests, biscuit. As far as I know they´d been mostly regulars, but have you noticed any new faces?”  
Clary seemed to think about it, her brows furrowed.  
“Now that you´re saying it there was indeed this one woman.”  
“How has she looked like?”, Raphael asked.  
Clary hummed thoughtful. “She had golden curls, and green eyes like mine. And I´m pretty sure that she´d spoken with a French accent and-“  
Clary stopped as she noticed the expressions of Magnus and Raphael, their postures stiffened, seemingly all color leaving their faces. The two friends exchanged a worried look.  
“You don´t think it´s her, do you?”, Magnus asked his friend.  
“Whom are you talking about?”, Clary frowned.  
Simon gave Raphael a worried look.  
“An old partner of Pablo and mine. She´s a thief as well, just that she didn´t care to make her hands dirty.”  
“You could say that she´s the not-so-noble-version of my aunt.”, Magnus declared.  
“Sounds like our murderer to me.”, Ragnor commented, “What´s her name?”  
“Camille”, Raphael said, his face still as pale as the marble angel from the gallery, “Camille Belcourt.”


	7. Chapter 7

“Dios mío!“, Raphael murmured, “That´s bad, eso es realmente malo. If Camille´s really in town…”  
“The way you´re talking about that Camille is really scaring me.”, Clary looked at them unsure, worry in her eyes.  
“Camille is quite scary, biscuit. If she is our murderer than we have to stop her.”, Magnus pointed out, still pale but with a certain determination in his voice.  
“He´s right.”, Raphael said, looking over to Simon who has laid one arm around his waist reassuringly, giving him a slight smile.  
“Well”, Simon said, trying to sound like a professional police man, “The two of you seem to know her best. Do you have any clues where she could hide right now?”  
“The way they described her I would say that we should try to call in hell and ask if they coincidentally miss one of their demons.”, Ragnor commented dryly while emptying his glass of Whiskey.  
“Even though Camille loves sunny areas”, Magnus decided to play along, “I fear that the fires of hell would be a little bit too hot for her, my old friend. She cares for her taint after all. But as I recall Camille loves expensive things. She´s like a magpie when it comes to this. So I would say that we´re going to call the receptions of New Yorks best hotels and ask if they have a guest who suits to her description. I can do this if you want.”  
“You think that they are simply going to give you information about their residents?”, Simon asked, making Ragnor snort.  
“What?”, Simon looked at Ragnor, frowning.  
“Oh boy, there is so much you still need to learn.”, Ragnor lightly laughed. “He´s Magnus Bane. Believe me, they would even tell him the color of their underwear if he would request for it.”  
“He´d actually once done that as a joke as he was a little bit drunk. And it worked.”, Isabelle laughed at the memory of it.  
“Seriously?”, Simon looked at Magnus as if he´d just outed himself as some kind of hero with secret superpowers.  
“What shall I say: Welcome to the family.”, Magnus shrugged before heading to their phone that stood in the entry hall. “I´ll make some calls, be right back.”, he called over his shoulder.  
As he stood in the dark entry hall, alone, he wondered if he´d done the right thing. Or if it had been a mistake to push Alexander away. Staring at the little red telephone with the black dial and the curled cable he´d suppressed the urge to call Alexander and explain himself. He knew that he would have to, but right know he had to protect Raphael. 

As he returned to the salon he´d to notice that everyone was wildly discussing, laughing, just being relaxed for one moment.  
It was good to see them like that.  
“That´s not funny, Ragnor.”, Catarina tried to look angry but failed as she couldn´t stop the grin that slowly curled up her lips.  
“What have I missed?”, Magnus came in, chuckling.  
“Just Ragnor telling our newby some anecdotals of your youth.”  
“Oh god.”, Magnus stopped in his movements, realizing what that meant.  
“So he knows about-”  
“Yes.”  
“And also how I-“  
“He´d mentioned it.”  
“But how about-“  
“You really want me to answer that.”, Cat raised one brow questioningly.  
Magnus looked over to Simon who stared at him open mouthed, Raphael next to him seemed to suppress a burst of laughter, lips pressed together to a thin line, nearly not seeable anymore.  
Oh god.  
He closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath.  
“Good news”, he tried to change the topic, “I´ve found Camille. Well, someone who fits to her description. She´s really in one of the most luxurious hotels of Manhattan.”  
“So what are we going to do now?”, Simon asked.  
“We´re telling it the detective inspector.”, Raphael said.  
“I thought the whole sense of our little get-together here is to avoid that.”, Ragnor said.  
“Of course we´re not telling him that I´ve once been a thief, but he needs to know about Camille.”, Raphael looked over to Magnus, giving him a caring smile. Cat had told him what Magnus had done for him, that he´d thrown the detective out and Raphael knew what he meant to Magnus. Even though Magnus himself seemingly hasn´t realized it yet. He wouldn´t let Magnus destroy whatever he and the detective have.  
“How about we´re doing this tomorrow?”, Ragnor offered. “I actually could use some sleep. Besides, we don´t know for sure if it´s really Camille.”  
“Right.”, Magnus sighed, “So tomorrow we´re going to observe the hotel and check if it´s really Camille and then we´re talking with Alexander. I think I owe him a huge apology.”  
“We all do, mi amigo, we all do.”


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning Alec was sitting at his desk at the police station, doing some paperwork, as he heard footsteps coming closer until they stopped directly in front of his desk.  
He looked up and directly into Izzy´s brown eyes. Strands of her black hair were falling loosely over her shoulders and her red lips were formed to a reassuring smile.  
“We need to talk.”, she said, sitting down on the empty seat in front of his desk, not waiting for his agreement.  
“Izzy, if you´ve come here to cover for Magnus and-“  
“How many times?”, she asked calm.  
Alec frowned. “How many times what?”  
“How many times have you covered for Jace? How often have you gotten him out of troubles and saved him from a fine?”, she raised her brow, giving him a knowing look.  
“What has this to do with Magnus and that little redhead?”, Alec asked confused.  
“The little redhead?”  
“That girl he was so obsessed with yesterday. She must mean a lot to him if he´s covering for her.”  
“You think this is about Clary?”, Isabelle laughed, raising her brows.  
“Isn´t it?”, Alec gave her a skeptical look.  
“No, this is about Raphael.”  
Now Alec didn´t understand anything anymore.  
“What has Raphael to do with it?”  
“He knew the victim. The guy had something to do with Raphael´s past. Magnus had feared that if you would find out, that it would bring you into a predicament because you would maybe have to imprison Raphael. He´d thought if he would find the murderer on his own that he could protect Raphael that way.”  
Alec didn´t know what to say. So that´s why Magnus had acted so strangely yesterday?   
“But Raphael has nothing to do with the murder?”, he asked.  
“God no!”, Izzy burst out, before her expression softened, “I promise you hermano, it´s nothing that bad. As I can promise you that you would have done the same when it would have been Jace and not Raphael.”  
Alec sighed, rubbing his temple.  
“On a scale from one to ten, how bad is the foolery that Magnus has planned this time?”  
“If he truly follows the plan, not so bad.”  
“You think he´ll follow the plan?”, Alec raised on eyebrow, giving her a sceptic look.  
“No”, Izzy admitted, grinning, “But if he would, then he wouldn´t be our Magnus, right?”  
Alec had to chuckle.  
“But who was this little redhead now? I think you´ve said her name was Clary?”  
Izzy gave him a lopsided grin, making him frown.  
“What?”, he asked.  
“You´re jealous, aren´t you”, she laughed.  
“No!”  
Izzy raised her eyebrows, giving him a look.  
“Ok, maybe a little.”, he admitted, sighing. “Was she his date, yes or no?”  
Izzy shook her head, a little smile on her lips.  
“You guys are unbelievable”, she laughed. “No, she´s not his date. She was Tessa´s best friend.”  
Tessa´s best… Oh.  
“You mean-“  
“I mean that he knows her since she´d worn pampers. She´s like a little sister to him, so there´s no reason to worry, hermano.”  
Alec felt the urge to face-palm himself.  
“You two really need to learn how to talk and how to trust each other. You are so clever but you can also be giant fools.”  
With that she stood up and left without any further word, leaving behind a stunned Alec.

Admittedly, as he´d gone to the art gallery yesterday evening, Magnus hadn´t imagined that this would lead him to observe a hotel in Manhattan while he was hiding behind a house plant that stood in the hotel´s entry room.  
Even though the Windsor was a pretty luxurious hotel that Magnus had used in the past more than one time he had to admit that he hadn´t done this before. They´d separated to make sure that they wouldn´t miss Camille. Cat and Ragnor were doing `window shopping´ at the boutiques that stood on the other side of the street, keeping an eye on the hotel´s entry, Raphael and Simon were at the hotel bar, in case that she would visit it (their love for alcohol has always been something that he and Camille had had in common; it was also the reason why Cat had refused to let him observing the bar), Clary was walking through the different floors and Magnus, well, he was kneeling here behind this stupid plant, trying to catch a look of the blonde woman that just went towards the elevators but a group of business men were blocking his view.  
He cursed under his breath, then left his hiding place and went to the elevators. The doors were already closed but he could see at the display that the elevator was driving up in the highest floor. Of course it must have been penthouse suite.   
Magnus took the next elevator and rode upstairs as well. He knew that the plan has originally been to just observe but what shall he say? He´d never been a fan of following plans or orders. And just `observing´ was also way too boring.  
As he arrived upstairs, the elevator doors opened and Magnus stocked, eyes wide and posture stiffening as he looked into the barrel of the revolver that was pointed at him.  
Outside the elevator stood the blonde girl that was -indeed- Camille Belcourt. She was wearing an elegant red dress that suited perfectly to the ruby collier around her neck.  
The best evidence of all that she was their culprit.  
“Hello Magnus”, she said, giving him a wide smile, “Long time no see.”  
“Camille”, Magnus tried not to show how uneasy he felt regarding his current situation, “I fear it hasn´t been long enough, my love.”  
The woman rolled her green eyes. “As sassy as always, aren´t you? Too bad that your clever words won´t help you against my little friend here”, she waved with the revolver.  
“What do you want?”, he asked.  
“I want a ride downstairs.”, she declared, stepping to him in the elevator. She pushed the button for the entry hall and the doors closed, leaving the two of them alone in the small cabin.  
“You´ve murdered Pablo, why?”, Magnus asked.  
“He was a fool. Besides, more money for me.”, she shrugged.  
“And that´s all?”, he raised his brows, making her snort.  
“Oh please, you know how I am.”  
“What I don´t know is how I could have ever loved someone as cold-hearted as you.”, Magnus bit out.  
Camille raised her brows. “Because you never loved me, my dear. You loved the idea of me. But you´ve never loved my real self. How could you? We were never close enough to ever truly know each other. I never showed you my true self because I didn´t care about something like that and you never showed me your true self because you´ve been too afraid that I could reject you. Accept it or not, but the fear of loneliness has always been your achilleas heel. You don´t do well, loosing those you love. But showing your true self belongs to a real relationship. I´ve never demanded that from you, that´s what you´ve loved about me. But that also means that we never had a real relationship, love.”  
Magnus didn´t know what to say. He wanted to reply something as the elevator bell announced their arrival in the entry hall.   
“It was lovely to see you again, my love, but since you´ve found me I fear that I have to leave now. I´m not keen on ending behind prison bars.”  
As the doors opened she stepped out, heading towards the front doors. Magnus stepped out of the elevator as well, staring after her, wondering what just happened.


	9. Chapter 9

The rest of the day was quite uneventful. After Camille had left, Simon had gone to inform the detective inspector about the situation. They´d started a manhunt which has turned out to be fruitless so far. And to be honest, Magnus didn´t believe that they would be able to find her. Camille wouldn´t let herself getting caught. She was too good for that. She´d surely already left the country.  
And Magnus? Magnus was angry with himself. He screwed it up. He knew that he screwed this one up. He couldn´t stop thinking about Camille´s words…  
`You never showed me your true self because you´ve been too afraid that I could reject you. I´ve never demanded that from you, that´s what you´ve loved about me. But that also means that we never had a real relationship.´  
The words echoed through his head again and again as he sat on the top step of his mansion´s outer staircase, watching the color-play of the setting sun that set the sky on fire.  
He had no idea what made him choose this place to spend the evening. Maybe because he needed some space, away from his lovely but chaotic residents, or maybe because this place reminded him of his conversation with Alec two weeks ago. Back then Alec had told him that he should not forget that he had friends who would always be there for him. Alec had told him that he would always be there for him. Why has he forgotten that? Why hasn´t he asked Alec for help during this case?  
Because you´ve wanted to protect, Raphael, you idiot.  
But maybe Camille wouldn´t have managed to get away if you´ve done it…  
It seemed to be a vicious circle. No matter how many times he thought about it, no matter how long he would break his head over it, no matter how often he reproached himself, he couldn´t change the unchangeable. Camille was gone, and he felt bad for how he´d left things with Alexander. He still hadn´t had a chance to talk with him about what had happened.  
“Do I wanna know what you´re doing out here, alone?”, a voice cut him out of his thoughts.  
Magnus looked up to see Alec, of all people, standing at the foot of the staircase, giving him a slight smile.  
“You´ve said that we would talk the next day. That´s today, but we haven´t found the time to talk, so I thought I visit you so that we can catch up on that.”  
Magnus swallowed hard, but nodded faintly anyways.  
Alec climbed up the staircase and took a seat next Magnus, letting out a loud sigh. “Why do I feel like we´ve been here before?”, he joked, but Magnus was not in the mood for joking.  
“I´m sorry”, he blurted out, obviously flustered.  
Alec looked at him, one eyebrow raised and a lopsided grin on his lips.  
“What?”, Magnus frowned.  
“Nothing”, Alec chuckled, “It´s just that this is truly a rare view. Magnus Bane who´s not only apologizing for something stupid he´d done but who´s also totally flustered. Who would have thought that I would ever get to witness that.”  
“Haha”, Magnus pouted, “I´m not good at apologies. I´ve always thought that regret would be such a pointless emotion so I´ve lived my life without regretting anything I´ve done, no matter how stupid or dangerous or embarrassing it has been. But now there is something I regret.”  
“And what is that?”  
“Lying to you. Not trusting you. Not letting you in.”, he confessed, noticing very well how Alec´s eyes widened for a second in surprise.  
“You know”, he said, trying to sound casual, “Today I´ve spoken with the Spanish police authorities and they´d told me that our victim had always worked with a partner.” He took something out of the pocket of his grey suit and handed it over to Magnus, who gulped at the view.  
The object was nothing less then the copy of a mug shot from a man who was wanted for several cases of art theft, art forgery and receiving.  
He may looked younger on the photo, his hair´s a little bit longer so that his curls were falling on his forehead and his face was a little bit more childish, not the defined features of a grown-up but there was no doubt…  
“So it wasn´t a joke, back than at Madame Rose´s when you´ve told me that Raphael has once been an art thief?”  
Magnus swallowed hard. “No.”  
“You know? When I´d spoken with the Spanish police today they´d asked me for his partner. If I´d seen him.”  
“What was your answer?”, Magnus asked careful, afraid of the outcome of this conversation.  
“I´ve told them that I´ve never seen this man before. And that I´m pretty sure that there hasn´t been a third man involved.”, Alec grinned as Magnus gave him a look full of shock and surprise.  
“You have what?!”  
“Raphael is a good man. And he´s a friend.”, Alec let out a breath, “I actually can´t believe it myself that I´ve done this but I have. And you know what? I don´t regret it.”  
Magnus´ jaw dropped and Alec had to laugh out loud at the view.  
“I don´t know what to say…”, he admitted. And it was true. He was speechless. Completely speechless.  
“Then don´t say anything.”, Alec smiled, “Just promise me that you will trust me next time.”  
“I do. You have my word.”  
“By the way, have you seen my constable?”  
“Yeah”, Magnus chuckled, “He´s upstairs with Raphael. I´m actually not sure if he´s still there or if he´d already left but I´m not going to look after them. I´m pretty sure Simon wouldn´t be happy about me walking in on him and Raph again.”  
“Yeah, probably not.”, Alec laughed.  
As he looked back at him, Magnus could notice how the moonlight reflected in his eyes, making them appear even bluer than normal. A slight smile curled up the corners of his mouth and he seemed to be more relaxed than the last time they´d spoken (What wasn´t a wonder considering the circumstances of their last encounter). Magnus couldn´t help but thinking how beautiful Alec was. How beautiful this moment was. How perfect.  
And then, in the fraction of a second, he decided to do something stupid.  
To do something he´d sworn himself not to do even though he wanted it for quite a while now.  
He leaned forward, minimizing the space between him and Alexander until their faces were so close that they breathed the same air. And then their lips touched.

To be continued…


End file.
